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‘You can’t actually force me to marry you—what, drag me screaming and kicking down the aisle?’ She fixed him with a look she hoped concealed the fear which was fast growing inside her. That he could do with her exactly what he wanted. ‘I don’t imagine that would do your image much good.’
‘No, I can’t force you—but I can take your son from you.’
Melissa froze as the world seemed to grow dark. It was the single most effective and terrifying threat he could have made—and the fact that he had uttered it made her want to lash out at him. ‘You can’t do that, either.’
‘You really think so? I wonder if you’re prepared
to test the full might of the King against a single mother of your standing.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with my standing!’
‘Do you consider it appropriate that the heir to the throne should be brought up in this way?’
‘He’s clean and well fed and stimulated and—happy!’ she defended.
‘And his home? You think that is a good place in which to bring up a royal Prince?’
It was the first time she’d actually thought of Ben as a Prince and, although the mother in her thrilled with pride, the title terrified her as well. Because didn’t it seem an awfully distancing thing—to be a royal Prince? Especially since she was just a commoner…
‘We don’t have to stay living there if you think it’s so awful!’ she declared wildly, because the expression which was darkening his arrogant features was really beginning to unsettle her.
‘You mean you’d let me buy you somewhere bigger?’ he suggested softly.
She walked straight into it. ‘If that’s what you want.’
‘Ah! So you don’t mind accepting my money, after all, Melissa? A remarkable change of heart. How come I’m not surprised?’
Now he was making her sound like some kind of cheap gold-digger. Twisting everything she uttered so that she felt as if she were in some sort of verbal maze—with everything she said leading nowhere. ‘I thought that’s what you wanted,’ she said, in confusion.
‘No, it is not what I want!’ he snapped. ‘I can just imagine what outcome buying you a big place and settling you with a suitable income would produce. Why, you’d have every male in the vicinity sniffing around you as if all their Christmases had come at once!’
‘You’re disgusting!’
‘No, Melissa—I am being practical. Make a woman rich and she becomes a target.’
‘And make her poor and she becomes a puppet?’ she retorted.
At this he gave a glimmer of a smile and leaned back in his chair—and maybe he had given some kind of sign to the staff because their untouched plates of fish were whisked away and Melissa’s glass of water refreshed.
It was time to call her bluff, he thought.
‘Okay. Have it your way.’ He laced his long fingers together and Melissa saw the shiny gold signet ring glinting on his little finger. ‘No marriage—if that’s what you want.’
Now she felt as if she were in a hall of mirrors—where reality was distorted differently every time she tried to examine it. Melissa frowned. ‘But…but…you just said it was non-negotiable.’
‘And you charmingly responded by implying that I would have to drag you down the aisle.’ His eyes tossed her a silent, mocking challenge. ‘I agree, not exactly the best public relations exercise for Zaffirinthos. So we won’t get married and obviously I will have to make some kind of financial provision for Ben. You’ll need to live somewhere secure—because once it comes out that he’s a royal baby you will be subjected to all kinds of inducements and attempts to exploit that.’
‘From crazies?’ she echoed sarcastically.
Oh, but her defiance and her sharp tongue inflamed him! Would make his inevitable victory all the sweeter. ‘That’s right.’ Leaning back in his chair, he studied her. ‘And, naturally, we’ll have to draw up some kind of legal settlement.’
‘Settlement?’ A sense of wariness began to creep over her.
‘Of course.’ He sent her a look of cool challenge. ‘While Ben can never be acknowledged as my legal heir because he is illegitimate—nonetheless I still wish to have an equal say in his upbringing.’
It was the word illegitimate which leapt out at her like a dark spectre. An old-fashioned word which wasn’t used much any more because having a baby out of wedlock was no longer considered shameful in the way it had been in the bad old days. But Casimiro was making it sound shameful. Was that deliberate? she wondered.
‘Equal say?’ she repeated, swallowing down the terrible nameless fear which was beginning to well up inside her. ‘Well, that is only fair, Melissa—and supremely modern. And presumably what you want.’
